Breadcrumb

Our Collection

Description

Patient Zero is a flight attendant, stricken with what she thinks is
chickenpox. She goes to ground in a Montreal hotel room. A few weeks
later, she’s back on the job — unaware of her role in an impending public
health catastrophe.

Pandemics have killed more people throughout history than all wars
combined. They are unpredictable — and inevitable. Are we ready for the next
big one?

Outbreak: Anatomy of a Plague juxtaposes a
21st century scenario against the little-known story of the 1885 smallpox
epidemic that devastated Montreal. Revisiting North America’s last major
encounter with the dreaded “Red Death,” it vividly evokes a modern city under
siege.

By the late 19th century Montreal was Canada’s leading
metropolis, and smallpox was preventable. So when an inbound train conductor
displayed symptoms of the disease, authorities should have been able to
contain the infection. But a string of fatal errors and mishaps would muddy
the waters — and a tainted batch of vaccine would sow panic and mistrust in a
city already divided by language, religion and class.

Epidemics feed on chaos — and by the time it had run its terrible
course, the 1885 plague had claimed over 2500 lives, mostly children from the
city’s impoverished French-speaking slums.

This cautionary history injects Outbreak with dramatic
urgency, as Dr Teresa Tam — who oversees Canada’s Federal Emergency Response
Team — joins epidemiologist Michael Libman and other experts to speculate on
the possible trajectory of a contemporary pandemic.

Addressing renewed fears of bio-warfare and recent experience with SARS
and AIDS, Outbreak deftly blends fiction with popular history
to tailor a timely and engaging reflection on what can happen when pandemics
strike. Based on Plague: How Smallpox Devastated
Montreal, by Michael Bliss.